Preservation group releases list of most endangered city buildings

Preservation Chicago, an organization that advocates on behalf of Chicago's architecture, has added seven buildings to their 2014 list.

Staff report

A preservation group on Tuesday released its annual list of Chicago’s seven most endangered buildings, which this year include a former public school, a Catholic church, an old theater and a onetime hotel.

Also on Preservation Chicago’s list are two former coal-fired power plants on the West Side that environmental and community groups successfully fought to shut down. The Fisk plant opened in 1903 in the Pilsen neighborhood, and the Crawford plant opened in 1924 in Little Village.

Both plants ceased operations in 2012. At the time, there was talk of transforming them into light industrial facilities in what Mayor Rahm Emanuel said would be “a national example of brownfield development.”

Also on Preservation Chicago’s list:

Francis Scott Key School, 517 N. Parkside Ave., in Austin.

The Jeffery Theater, 1952 E. 71st St., in South Shore.

St. Adalbert Catholic Church, 1636 W. 17th St., Pilsen.

Central Manufacturing District along Pershing Road south of McKinley Park.